Jacob leaves Beersheba alone, running for his life. At sunset he lies down with a stone for a pillow and dreams: “a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.” Above it stands the LORD, who repeats to Jacob the promise given to Abraham and Isaac and adds, “Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go.” God meets Jacob not at his best but at his lowest.
Jacob wakes and says, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it.” He sets up the stone as a pillar, pours oil on it, and names the place Bethel, which means house of God. He vows that if God will be with him, the LORD shall be his God, and he will give a tenth of all God gives him. It is the beginning of Jacob's journey of faith.
In Haran Jacob meets Rachel at a well and falls in love. He serves Laban seven years for her, “and they seemed only a few days to him because of the love he had for her.” But on the wedding night Laban gives him Leah instead. The deceiver is deceived. Jacob, who had pretended to be the firstborn, is told, “It must not be done so in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn.” He serves another seven years for Rachel. God lets us reap what we sow so that He can reshape us.
In this troubled home God shows tender mercy. “When the LORD saw that Leah was unloved, He opened her womb.” Leah names her sons hoping for her husband's love, until her fourth son, when she says, “Now I will praise the LORD,” and names him Judah. From Judah would come King David and the Lord Jesus Christ. Eleven sons and a daughter are born in Haran, and the last of those sons is Joseph, Rachel's firstborn.
Laban changes Jacob's wages ten times, yet God blesses Jacob's flocks. After twenty years the LORD says, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your family, and I will be with you.” Jacob leaves secretly, Laban pursues, but God warns Laban in a dream not to harm him. Jacob says, “Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed.” They make a covenant at Mizpah, and Jacob heads home to face Esau.